A$AP Rocky is claiming that his former friend and fellow rapper A$AP Relli is falsely claiming that he was shot by Rocky in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles.
Rocky and his attorney says that Relli had been badgering his former buddy for money for an undetermined amount of time and then, in November 2021, aggressively confronted Rocky to allegedly shake him down for a bag.
“Rocky didn’t shoot him by any stretch,” Tacopina told Rolling Stone, calling the firearm assault allegations “just a plain and blatant classic attempt at extortion.”
The LAPD and the county district attorney’s office, however, claim to be in possession of a video that clearly shows Rocky shooting at Relli as he fled the scene of the in-person meeting. Relli was reportedly grazed in the hand and sought medical treatment at a local hospital.
Rocky, who was born in Harlem as Rakim Mayers, has been charged with two counts of using a semiautomatic firearm to assault Relli, whose real name is Terell Ephron. Rocky, 33, was arrested in April 2022 while returning to Los Angeles from his girlfriend Rihanna’s hometown of Barbados. He remains free on a $550,000 bond and is staring at nine years in prison if convicted.
The attorney for Rocky, Joe Tacopina, is confident that his client will be vindicated. He added that the charges are the result of a resentful friend who was stewing in bitterness due to a lackluster career.
“He’s a failed associate – ex-associate – of Rocky’s, and he’s jealous,” Tacopina said of Relli. “He was trying to get money from Rocky. He wanted Rocky to support him. He made it clear. There were repeated attempts where he tried to ask for money in lieu of not causing problems for Rocky. That’s what he said. We have all this memorialized in text messages and otherwise, so it’s an extortion.”
Tacopina also says that Relli was the aggressor during the incident in question.
“He tried to attack Rocky, and some other guy got involved, and he punched some other guy in the face and knocked his teeth out, and of course now, according to him, he’s a victim.”
